Chris Bueschers task, should he accomplish it Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway, is no small feat.Buescher will try to parlay his improbable victory at a rain-shortened race this summer into a coveted berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. Making NASCARs playoffs would be a coup for Buescher and Front Row Motorsports, an improbable participant in the Chase.Buescher is eligible for the Chase by virtue of his August victory at Pocono . But the rules require the 16 drivers that make the Chase to be ranked 30th or higher in the standings, and Buescher is barely at that mark.He goes into Saturday nights race with an 11-point lead over David Ragan for 30th in the standings. So Buescher, last years Xfinity Series champion, needs a plan on how to race the regular-season finale.We are not in a full defensive mode, he said Friday at the Virginia race track. We cant go out and just try to run every lap and stay out of everyones way. We dont have that luxury. We are coming out here to race aggressively for every position, every point we can possibly get, without taking unnecessary risk.There are three scenarios in which Buescher can make the Chase without relying on the results of any other driver, and all require him to finish at least ninth. Thats probably a stretch considering Buescher has just two top-five finishes through 25 races this season.In fact, hes only been 30th in the standings for three weeks. The rest of the year, the 23-year-old rookie has been as low as 38th.Vying for spots in the Chase are some of the bigger names in NASCAR, all of whom drive for top organizations. There are three spots available Saturday night -- four if Buescher falls below 30th -- and a first-time race winner would snag one of the open slots.The winless drivers on the cusp of taking a spot in the Chase are: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports, Austin Dillon of Richard Childress Racing, Jamie McMurray of Chip Ganassi Racing and Ryan Newman, teammate to Dillon. All are ranked 14th or higher in the standings, making Buescher an anomaly in a system in which consistency reigns supreme.But under the format adopted in 2014, NASCAR wanted to reward winning and made the Chase the prize for taking risks to win races. Thats how Buescher got to victory lane at Pocono, where he didnt pit as weather closed in on the race track and inherited the lead in time for the race to be called. Those 12 laps led in Pennsylvania are the only laps Buescher has led this season.Its put him in position to strategize and race with a championship berth on the line, which he did last year in the Xfinity Series for Roush Fenway Racing.It has been a lot busier than normal and talking a lot about the same thing every week, he said. Trying to figure out the ideal scenarios so that we can race into the Chase and then move through the Chase. There is a lot of anticipation leading up to this weekend through the last several weeks. I love racing under the lights and I am excited about the race here at Richmond. I am pretty confident we are in a good spot right now.Heres a look at the other drivers trying to race their way into the Chase:ELLIOTT: The rookie driver for Rick Hendrick needs to finish at least 19th to make the Chase with no help if there is a new winner at Richmond. Hes ranked a solid 10th in the standings, best of all drivers who are winless this season. Its not a surprise that Elliott is in this position considering how hyped hes been.DILLON: Ranked 12th in the standings, Dillons third full year in Cup is easily his best. He has career highs in every category but laps led, and a top-10 finish Saturday would secure his berth without help from any other drivers. I think Ive been nervous for the last two or three weeks now, Dillon said. Getting in the Chase is a big deal. Its our main goal. Ive done everything I can as a driver to prepare myself.McMURRAY: After making the Chase for the first time last year, McMurray has been on the bubble this entire season. He was clinging to just a seven-point lead over Newman for the final spot, but a penalty levied against Newmans team this week gave McMurray breathing room. There are several mathematical scenarios for McMurray to make the Chase, but if theres not a first-time winner, hes in the field.NEWMAN: A 15-point penalty for failing post-race inspection last weekend has hurt Newmans chances to make the Chase. He wasnt in a mood to discuss the setback Friday at Richmond, asking what penalty? when approached about the points deduction . He corrected a reporter who said that Newman had been penalized -- it was RCR that was flagged, and the punishment was a loss of points -- and wasnt up for discussing how he felt.I dont have a reaction. Im just here to win, he said.Newman can control his own destiny by winning Saturday night. Hydro Flask Black Friday .J. -- New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz will miss the rest of the season after having surgery on his left knee. Swell Black Friday http://www.waterbottleblackfriday.com/ . Nigeria beat surprise package Ethiopia 2-0 in the second leg of their playoff for a comfortable 4-1 aggregate victory. Victor Moses converted a 20th-minute penalty after an Ethiopian handball, and Victor Obinna made certain of Nigerias place in Brazil with his powerful free kick in the 82nd at UJ Esuene Stadium. Hydro Flask Black Friday Sale . -- Matt Rupert scored once in regulation and again in the shootout as the London Knights extended their win streak to nine games by defeating the Owen Sound Attack 4-3 on Friday in Ontario Hockey League action. Swell Cyber Monday . Bjorn, who had a 36-hole total of 8-under 134, made a testing six-foot putt to save par on the 16th and a birdie on the 17th before bogeying the final hole after a misjudged approach shot. American Kevin Streelman was in second place after shooting a 69.SYDNEY, Australia -- Only a day after retiring from professional cycling, Stuart OGrady admitted to using a blood-booster during the scandal-plagued 1998 Tour de France. The 39-year-old Australian rider, a six-time Olympian who wore the leaders yellow jersey for a total of nine days in 17 Tours de France, announced his retirement earlier this week after the 100th edition of the race. He admitted he had used erythropoietin (EPO) for two weeks before the 1998 event, saying he had acquired it himself and used it without the knowledge of his team. His admission in an Australian newspaper came after the French senate inquiry into doping in sport released its findings and implicated dozens of cyclists for suspicious test results, uncovering evidence that 1998 Tour de France champion Marco Pantani and runner-up Jan Ullrich used EPO to fuel their performances. "You win Olympics, Paris-Roubaix and now all of that is going to be tainted by this action," OGrady, who won the Madison gold medal at the 2004 Olympics and was a silver medallist in the team pursuit at the 1992 Olympics, was quoted as saying Thursday in News Corp Australia newspapers. "Thats the hardest thing to swallow out of all this - it was such a long time ago and one very bad judgment is going to taint a lot of things." OGrady told the newspapers he just had to "drive over the border and buy it in a pharmacy" and used "extremely cautious amounts" of EPO. The 1998 Tour de France was notable for the major scandal that emerged with the discovery of widespread doping on the French Festina team. The subsequent police crackdown led to seven of the original 21 teams either withdrawing or being ejected from the Tour. "When the Festina affair happened, I smashed it, got rid of it and that was the last I ever touched it," he said. "It wasnt systematic doping, I wasnt trying to deceive people. I was basically trying to survive in what was a very grey area." Samples taken at the 1998 race were re-tested in 2004, and anti-doping investigators passed that information to the French government inquiry. Frances Senate, after a five-month investigattion focused on fighting sports doping, confirmed Wednesday that use of the banned substance EPO was rife in cycling in the late 1990s, before a test for the drug had been developed.dddddddddddd Pantani was suspended in 1999 from the Giro after failing a random blood test. He died in 2004 of an accidental drug overdose. Ullrich, the 1997 Tour winner, has admitted to blood doping and was stripped of his third-place finish in the 2005 Tour. OGrady rode for GAN in 1998. He joined Orica-GreenEdge last year, his fifth pro team, and rode his last Tour with the Australian team, which issued a statement about the veteran riders admissions. "ORICA-GreenEDGE supports Stuart OGradys decision to step forward and place the findings of the French Senate Report into perspective regarding his own past," the teams general manager, Shayne Bannan, said. "The team would also like to express its support in Stuart as a person and as an advocate for a clean sport. Like the majority of the riders in his generation, he was also exposed to the issues and wrongdoings of the sport and made some wrong choices in that environment." OGrady said that brief period before his second Tour de France was the only time he ever used EPO. "I was lucky enough to win a lot of things, they can test my samples from Paris-Roubaix and my Olympic medals for the next thousand years, theyre not going to find anything," he said. "There is nothing more to hide." The Australian Olympic Committee is expecting OGradys resignation from its athletes commission. "Athletes Commission members are chosen for their qualities of integrity and leadership and by his admission Stuart does not deserve to be a member of that group," AOC president John Coates said. AOC media director Mike Tancred said OGrady would be dismissed if he didnt quit. "Hes a gold medallist , but really his career is tarnished as of today," Tancred said. "Its sad he wont be remembered as a fantastic competitor. Instead hell be remembered as an athlete who succumbed to the temptation of drugs in sport just to get an edge on some of his fellow riders." ' ' '